AGetting Good Results with Autofocus

Autofocus does not perform well under the conditions listed below. The shutter release may be disabled if the camera is unable to focus under these conditions, or the in-focus indicator (J) may be displayed and the camera may sound a beep, allowing the shutter to be released even when the subject is not in focus. In these cases, rotate the focus mode selector to M and use manual focus (pg. 59), or use focus lock (pg. 57) to focus on another subject at the same distance and then recompose the photograph.

There is little or no contrast

The focus point contains

 

between the subject and the

areas of sharply contrasting

 

background.

brightness.

h

Example: Subject is the same

Example: Subject is half in

color as the background.

the shade.

 

The focus point contains objects at different distances

from the camera. Example: Subject is inside a cage.

Background objects appear larger than the subject. Example: a building is in the frame behind the subject.

The subject is dominated by regular geometric patterns. Example: A row of windows in a skyscraper.

DThe AF-Assist Illuminator

The subject contains many fine details.

Example: A field of flowers or

other subjects that are small or lack variation in brightness.

If the subject is poorly lit, the AF-assist illuminator will light

AF-assist illuminator

automatically to assist the autofocus operation when the shutter-

 

release button is pressed halfway. The AF-assist illuminator will not

 

light in l, or mmodes or if Off has been selected for Custom Setting

 

a3 (Built-inAF-assist illuminator; pg. 174). The illuminator has a

 

range of about 0.5–3.0 m (1 ft. 8 in.–9 ft. 10 in.); when using the

 

illuminator, use a lens with a focal length of 24–200 mm and remove

 

the lens hood.

 

ASee Also

Custom Setting d1 (Beep; pg. 180) can be used to turn the beep speaker on or off.

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